Vista resident and rose grower Joe Smith points out Fourth of July climbing roses with Sharon McGolgan in her Oceanside backyard.

Rosarians discuss their gardening passion, culture tips and why this spring's crop is tops

By: RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer

It is difficult to describe some people's love for roses without slipping into poetry.

Willing to draw blood, yet at the same time beckoning with its fragrant, velvety blooms, this simple beauty is the queen of every garden. So fair. So lovely. So delicate.

"I love them because they are so beautiful by nature," said Mariann Putnam, who has more than 350 rose bushes in her Escondido garden. "They come in every color and fragrance. Each one is unique."

And right now, our country's national flower has never looked better.

This spring, with its mild temperatures and light rainfall, has been particularly kind to North County roses and those who love them. Even part-time gardeners, those of us who spend more time poring over garden catalogs than we do on hands and knees to weed, mulch and prune, are finding rose bushes bursting with colorful buds and fragrant blooms.

"This year is sure much better than last year," said Joe Smith of Vista. He tends 330 rose bushes and is an avid grower, entering his best blooms in shows throughout the season. "This year we had a spring; last year we didn't."

Smith is chairman of the California Coastal Rose Society's 20th annual rose show celebration, which will be held at the Carlsbad Senior Center on Saturday (see box).

"The rose show is when you see the first blooms of the season," said Smith, adding that in Southern California, rose bushes have usually four or five bloom cycles a year.

"And the arrangements are a big draw," said Oceanside resident Sharon McColgan, chairwoman of the show's judges and clerks. Categories include traditional and modern, oriental, dried and/or treated plant materials and a whole host of categories for miniature roses.

"Even if you have seen really nice arrangements of flowers, some of these are still really spectacular," member Jane Diliberto said. "Just to see the intricacies and different styles. People's eyes just glaze over."

Diliberto said entering roses in the show is free. She encourages people, even if they are complete novices, to come Saturday and show their roses.

"Bring them down," she said. "When I was a new rosarian (and anyone who has a rose is a rosarian), I found it a lot of fun to go to the show and see all of the roses and make my wish list."

Every rose has a name

Diliberto, who said she has at least 500 rose bushes in her yard, said this year's rage is a white rose called Pope John Paul II. She has one, and said it is spectacular and extremely fragrant. "You should see it," she said with glee.

"I heard on the radio that it is the best white rose ever," added Smith.

Every rose has a name. Many are named for celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Child, Joan Fontaine, Judy Garland, Laura Bush and even Charles Kuralt and Geraldine Ferraro. Other names are just fun, like Marmalade Skies, Color Me Pink, Lime Sublime, Mellow Yellow, Joseph's Coat, Out of the Blue, Vavoom or Electron.

Smith and his wife, Brenda Landers-Smith, who designs the society's Web site and program materials, said they have developed roses that now bear their names. "Hers is Lady Bren and mine is Sir Joseph," said Joe Smith. "Both are miniature roses. Hers is a dark pink with a cream reverse and mine is red and pink-striped."

Serious rose gardeners often know all the names of their plants, and many have handwritten plaques with names at the base of each plant. "I can't remember most people's names, but I know the names of my roses," said Escondido gardener Putnam, showing off her Nicole Carol Miller rose, which was named after one of the victims of 9/11, and an Yves Piaget, too. "Who is that?" she asked rhetorically.

These rose lovers also speak to and about their bushes as if they were their children, sometimes obstinate, sometimes eager to please. "I need to keep an eye on Gracie Allen," said Diliberto. "She gets rust if I'm not careful.

"But the roses look great right now," she adds quickly. "My leaves look good; I was just out there and I hardly see any mildew -- even here near the coast."

Hunting for pests

Still, rose gardeners must be diligent. Putnam is constantly on the hunt for pests and disease, she said. One day, for example, she'll be out crushing aphids in her hands. Another day she'll hunt grasshoppers. She is always on the lookout for gophers and cane borers. And every so often, she sprays for powdery mildew or rust, diseases hated by rose gardeners.

"I almost killed the roses when I put sesame oil on them," she said of a treatment supposed to protect the leaves. "It was pure oil, and the leaves fried in the sun. Almost killed them all."

Much of what Putnam has learned about rose care, she has learned through trial and error. "I'm self-taught," she said. "It's fun and I'm still learning."

Everyone in the Putnam family helps. Son Jonathan, 15, has made gopher baskets for each bush, and Putnam's mother, Anna Marie Racz, 83, rakes and tidies. "It's not hard work, but sometimes you get stuck," Racz said in her strong German accent. Putnam says her husband, David, "has the longest honey-do list in Escondido." In summertime, she fills two entire trash cans with deadheads each week.

Hints from experts

After the season is over, rose gardeners will prune, fertilize and add mulch and topsoil.

But if bushes look sickly, Putnam said, she'll prune at any time. She admitted she has given up on only one rose: her Queen Elizabeth IIs. "I just pulled all eight of them out," she said with resignation. "They were nothing special. They were the only ones I could do that to."

Smith also recommends being ruthless when it comes to pruning. "You can't hurt it; it will come back. I had a Touch of Class (rose) that wasn't doing anything. So I said, 'I'm done with this plant,' and cut it practically down to the ground ... and when I came back to take it out, the canes had grown up big and strong."

McColgan said there are times when you just have to show a rose who's boss. "Sometimes you have to take out the shovel and say, 'See this?' before they get the message."

Smith advised using the two-year rule before uprooting a rose. That's how long it takes for some bushes to grow into their new homes.

"But you know, there is such a thing as a bad rose, and I throw those out or give those to the neighbors," said McColgan.

McColgan, who has been growing roses for nearly 40 years in San Diego and in the Bay Area, and Diliberto both think it is important to garden organically.

"I try to be organic," McColgan said. She tries to avoid garden chemicals because she had breast cancer two years ago. But going organic is expensive, she said, "and I'm a lazy gardener. I look for disease-resistant roses and they do just fine."

"Roses are very forgiving for what we do to them," said Diliberto.

Delightful people

The roses are forgiving, perhaps because so many rosarians are delightful people.

Smith began growing roses in 1978 and became a member of the California Coastal Rose Society in 1991 when his ex-father-in-law couldn't drive and needed a ride to the meetings.

"They said, 'He has a truck and he's young,' so I was elected," Smith recalled. Now, he is the one who wouldn't miss a meeting.

"They are the nicest group of people you'll ever meet," he said of his fellow rosarians.

The folks at the Coastal Rose Society give free consultations to the public. They're happy, McColgan said with a smile, to talk to anyone about their roses over the phone and, in certain cases, even make house calls.

"It's a free service," she said.

-- Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.

A Rose Glossary:

Bareroot -- roses presented in a dormant state without soil on roots. Usually sold in plastic bags.

Cane -- Supportive branches. Distinguished from stems in that they have hardened and a bigger caliper than stems.

Deadhead -- to remove spent blooms, which encourages faster repeat bloom

Floribunda -- modern rose that blooms in clusters.

Hip -- the fruit of the rose plant, from a pollinated bloom.

Hybrid tea -- first modern class of roses. They have a high centered bloom on a long, straight stem.

Sucker -- stem that grows spontaneously from roots and is generally pruned away.

AT A GLANCE:

WHAT: 20th Annual Rose Show Celebration, presented by the California Coastal Rose Society

WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Saturday at the Carlsbad Senior Center, 799 Pine St., Carlsbad. Entries will be received from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. All exhibitors welcome. All exhibits become property of the society upon entry into the show. Trophies will be awarded at 2 p.m. Call (760) 941-2437 or visit www.californiacoastalrose.com.

The California Coastal Rose Society meets at 6:15 and 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month at Heritage Hall, 2650 Garfield St., Carlsbad. No meetings in July, August and December. Annual membership is $20; members receive a monthly newsletter. Call (760) 941-2437 or visit www.californiacoastalrose.com.